PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Microsoft Works 9, Now with Ads

Microsoft has released a new version of Microsoft Works. Microsoft Works v9, the red-headed stepchild of Microsoft Office, is a free, ad-supported office package offering word processing, spreadsheet, and slideshow (PowerPoint) functionality.

Microsoft Works 9 may also someday be available as a Microsoft-hosted low-end productivity service, possibly through the company’s Live services, which would put it head-to-head with Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Zoho. But for the moment, Works 9 will be limited to the desktop.

Read more on the Wired Blog Network.

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: Companion, Microsoft

Smartphone Plus Projector

Imagine you’re on the final legs of a never-ending road trip. You arrive at the 100th client meeting that week to deliver the PowerPoint you slaved over for weeks. Just as you set up, the projector in the room goes dead. What do you do? Why not use the projector on your smartphone?

Well, right now you can’t do that. But if Motorola has anything to say about it, this scenario will soon become a reality.

Stephen Wellman explains more on InformationWeek.

Filed Under: Hardware
Tagged as: Hardware, PowerPoint, Projector

authorPOINT Lite: PowerPoint to Flash Converter

authorPOINT Lite, a free PowerPoint to Flash Converter, has been released by authorGEN, a Raleigh, NC-based company that creates e-learning and presentation software. This presentation creation tool is a small download, and works on your desktop to create compact Flash files from your PowerPoint. The tool can also perform batch conversion of multiple .PPS and .PPT files.

authorPOINT Lite retains most PowerPoint effects, including animations and sounds, without any loss in presentation quality in the Flash (.SWF) output. Flash presentations have a number of advantages over the PowerPoint format as Flash files are lighter, more secure, multiple browsers, and operating system compatible.

Read more on the authorGEN site.

Filed Under: Add-ins
Tagged as: Add-in, Harman Singh, Online Presentations, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Flash

MathType Review

MathType 6 is the newest version of a well-known program that allows you to create math equations and more within Word, PowerPoint, and several other applications. MathType itself is available in both Windows and Macintosh platforms, but MathType 6 is available only for Windows at the time of this writing.

MathType 6 has several improvements over the older versions of the program.

Read the Indezine review of MathType 6.

Filed Under: Add-ins
Tagged as: Add-in, PowerPoint

SlideShare Adds SlideCasting

We love using SlideShare because it’s a one-click process to upload and share our PowerPoints. However, SlideShare did lack the audio streams that make YouTube and iFilm so popular. And so, people want to create YouTube movies from their PowerPoint files. Not anymore, since SlideShare has added a cool new feature called SlideCasting.

  SlideCasting is cool not just because it adds an audio stream to SlideShare’s online presentations but because it does this in such a well-implemented process:

• First, the presentation upload and the audio features are completely different—so the ease of use remains for those who just want to upload a presentation without audio.
• You can use any audio stream that has a URL. For example, you can use an MP3 file that’s uploaded to your own site, or a podcast.
• Then you mash up the uploaded presentation and audio together. You can do this (and sync the slide timings as well) through an intuitive interface that includes a view of the slides and the waveform of the linked audio stream.
• And you can add audio to any of your uploads on SlideShare—even the ones that were done before SlideShare added the SlideCast feature.

Check out this walkthrough by Jonathan Boutelle.

Filed Under: Companion Programs
Tagged as: Companion, Jonathan Boutelle, Online Presentations, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Flash, SlideShare